Better Than Photos: Storytree Records and Shares Stories for Families and Organizations

WHAT: Capture family or community stories on video (or audio) and share them. Create a "storytree" by recording a story asking a family member to answer a question you choose. For example, grandchildren can ask grandparents to record a video on how they met. Only those in a storytree can see the posts.

Storytree [ @storytree ] requires a webcam for video but users can upload any type of content. iPhone app in the works. Considering building storytelling booths.

LAUNCHERS: Matt Sullivan, CEO [ @Matthawaii, LinkedIn ]. Zach Weiner, CTO. [ @Zweinz, LinkedIn ].

INSPIRATION: "We were inspired by companies like StoryCorps who do a superb job of capturing individual stories, but are unaccessible to most people," Matt told LAUNCH via email.  "We also realized that our lives are dominated by real-time life streams on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Instead, Storytree focuses on capturing and gathering the meaningful content only with the people you care most about. These are the kinds of content that will only become more important as time goes on."

BACKSTORY: The founders launched Storytree out of the Stanford d.school, where they interviewed hundreds of people about their family stories.

BUSINESS MODEL: Downloads are free. Pay for books, slideshows, e-books, etc. Fee for large organizations that want to create a community of shared stories for their members. Experimenting with a freemium subscription model.

COMPETITION: Proust.com, MyHeritage, 1000Memories.

CUSTOMERS/GROWTH: Not revealing. "Storytree is still in beta," says Matt.

INVESTORS: 500Startups.

RAISING: $500K and hiring.

SCREEN SHOTS
The Storytree iPhone app will let you record, view and share videos within your family's storytree.



A grandparent, sitting in front of a webcam, can talk about a specific topic that a family member has asked him to recall.